a day in a life of an auror
by soulbunny
Summary: a day in the life of an average auror


it was early in the morning, of course that's when all days start, when somwhere someone woke up with a start. that somewhere was in a small house in the centre of london, and that someone was an auror, and should have been enjoying a good nights rest.   
this auror was not very happy when he was woken up in the morning. he was not very happy anyway. he was called tom agard. many of the people who who were his friends thought he was policeman by proffesion, and thought also that he was a normal person. the first part is marginally true, since he was an auror, the specialized policemen of the magical world. but normal, he was not.   
he spent a lot of time having to control magical creatures, and the rest of the time erasing the memories of muggles who had been attacked by them. it was not the safest of lifestyles, and he had made many enemies in the magical world.   
which was the reason he woke up with a start. it was early in the morning, so early it was still dark. what woke him was the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. he got out of bed , and looked in the mirror. the mirror eflected the whole room, and the stairs. he looked at it, but it cast no reflection of what might be coming up the stairs. he gripped his wand. the footsteps went right up beside the door of his room. the door creaked open. still the mirror showed nothing on the stairs. the door opened fully, and immediatly he threw the wand straight at what was coming through the door. there was a brief howl, and the sucking in of air. he walked up to the door, and found his wand sticking out of a pile of ashes, which had been once a vampire. there were the sounds of more footsteps, but this ime he was relieved to find that it was his landlady, hwho looked at him and said   
"what ave you been up to , i thought i heard a scream?"   
"yes well" replied tom "i had a very bad dream"   
"oh, well you shouldn't have cheese. very bad for dreams"   
"good night mrs withers" he said as she walked away.   
he then gently sweeped the ashes into a pot. everyone knew that if you drop some blood on the ashes of a vampire, it would come back, and he didn't want this one coming back. he looked up and saw the sunrise, and decided not to go back to bed. he got himself ready for work.   
just as he was about to leave an owl flew in, carrying a letter. he took the letter, and read it. it read   
  
dear tom, good job with the rogue troll. by the way, the department thinks that you should train the new apprentice coming in, as old diggle is sick.- your boss mr j strumpet   
  
tom sighed. jasper strumpet was not a nice person. the congratulations was only a platitude. his boss mainly didn't like him because in the past, tom has shown that he was after jaspers job, and jaspers solution to this was to keep tom working as much as possible.   
just as he finished reading the letter, another owl flew in, carrying the daily prophet.  
  
he opened up the daily prophet, thumbing through the pages. rita skeeter seemed to be keeping quiet, in fact she didn't have any story in the prophet at all. he looked out for the results of the triwizard tournament, he had in fact bet money on victor krum to win. but it took him a while to find the story. in fact it was only a small paragraph. it struck him as strange considering rita skeeter had made a point of reporting the events of the tournament thoroughly. all it said basically that the winner was harry potter. there was hardly anything else. it was very suspicious indeed. and he had lost a galleon because of it. he put the paper down and found himself staring into the face of a young woman.   
"trainee?" he asked. the trainee nodded.   
he started walking, and gestured fo the trainee to follow him.   
"what's your name?" he asked   
"johnette stubbs" she replied   
"johnette?"   
"my parents expected a boy"   
he nodded.   
"so , have you been to the ministry of magic?"   
"no, i don't"   
they passed a bunch of people, who naturally avoided them.   
"well" he began "there are many entrances, i usually take this one"   
he pointed to a nearby public toilet. on it was a sign saying "out of order"   
he went up to it and tapped on what looked like a half chewed piece of chewing gum three times. the door opened, and he walked in, followed by the trainee, who was stunned immediatly. the inside of the toilet was a large office, with several wizards in there already. there were several huge windows with stainglass portraits, which moved around, and changed colour.   
"your muggle-born?" he said.   
"how did you guess"she asked.   
"no wizard would find this place very amazing, and judging by the way your mouthes open you find this extremely amazing. don't worry, i don't mind, i'm muggle-born, but i'd keep it under your hat if i were you, some people down in the ministry wouldn't take it too kindly if they found out"   
"but there are laws in place to stop that sort of discrimination,"   
"paah" tom spat " most of the people are rich enough to buy themselves out of trouble, and they don't care much for the laws. if you let them know, they'd probably hold ya back and make some sort of excuse for it, so they can't be done for discrimination. i mean, take arthur weasley, i think you went to school with his sons"   
"yes, fred and george, although they were in a different year"   
"yes, anyway, old weasley has this thing for muggles, and the ministry don't quite think he's a proper wizard because of it. i mean, he's a good wizard, but he's been held back just for associating with muggles. so you can see how much trouble could occur if they found out if you were a muggle"   
"i see"   
"so don't go around gawping everywhere, and also, ease up on the make-up. if you wanna be an auror, your personal appearence is the least of your worries."   
suddenly, a small man with a pot belly ran up to them.   
"tom" he said "have you heard what happened to amos diggory?"   
"what happened flinch" he asked. "i didn't read anything in the daily prophet. i'm sure he might be a bit dissappointed that his son lost, which reminds me"   
tom reached into his pocket   
flinch stopped him.   
"you haven't heard have you?"   
"what?"   
"the triwizard tournament, cedric diggory has been killed!"   
there was a gasp from johnette. tom turned, and said   
"you knew cedric didn't you"   
"all the girls in my house knew him. he won our match against gryffindor last year!"   
tom turned back to flinch.   
"what happened?"   
"the ministry are trying to keep it quiet, but rumor has it that-" flinch lowered his voice "you-know-who killed him"   
there was a pause.   
"you-know-who is back?"   
flinch nodded.   
"and why wasn't i informed, why aren't there aurors all over the place?"   
"fudge thinks potter is telling lies" replied flinch " you know what rita skeeter wrote about him. 'mentally unstable' fudge seems to think potter is seeing things"   
"what do you think?"   
"i hope fudge is right. i really do. but"   
" the quidditch world cup, the dissappearence of bertha jorkins. it would make sense if voldemort has risen again. i mean, i doubt that even a killing curse could put him out. whats dumbledore doing about it? "   
" i don't know, it happened yesterday, but it think fudge is going to see dumbledore about a death eater. he's brought a dementor with him."   
"that's extremely stupid, this should be investigated even if it may not be substantiated. oh, by the way flinch"   
he gestured to johnette   
"this is my new trainee, johnette. johnette, this is flinch, who does the paperwork around here"   
"Flinch? why do they call you flinch?" she asked   
"he's called flinch, because he flinches whenever someone tells a lie." said tom. "very useful in this line of work"   
"yeh, but they got me pushing paper after that business with grindelwald" replied flinch   
"yes, flinch has been working here a long long time. he got hit by a bad curse. that's how he got his flinch."   
"yes, you know, i have to go, work calls"   
"i understand" replied tom.   
tom went up to the reception desk, and placed a jar on the desk. the secretary was a goblin, who grinned nastily whenever someone looked at him.   
"kreg, this is the new apprentice"   
"aah yes, johnette stubbs. your father was killed by lord voldemort in his muggle torturings" sneered kreg   
"don't worry, i won't tell your personal details to anyone else."   
tom slammed a jar on the desk. it ahd some ash in it.   
"a vampire tried to kill me last night." stated tom   
"was he successful?" replied kreg   
"i still like garlic, so no. put the ashes with the others" sneered tom.   
"i didn't think you got vampires here" gasped johnette.   
"tell that to the pile of ashes. vampires prefer bulgaria, but they carry grudges, and on holiday in bulgaria, i killed the vampire lord in the local area, and so vampires have a general grudge against me"   
"on holiday?"   
"figure of speech. an auror is never on holiday. wherever you look theres a crime going on, and you can't just ignore it, or you can't call yourself an auror."   
he walked through the door, holding it open for johnette.   
there was a huge office, full of people milling about, and owls flying in from above dropping letters, and by each desk was a fireplace, some of which had faces in them, chattering away. tom walked up to one desk which had a mountain of letters. he grabbed a wad of the letters and threw them into the fireplace. there was the sound of mingled roars and squelches.   
"death threats mainly come through the post. remember, if somethings really important, they'd tell you in person. when a n auror gets an offensive letter, it usually isn't a howler. sometimes i wish for howlers"   
he tipped up the rest of the letters into the fire. "but all i get are the usual curses."   
suddenly, a face appeared in the fire.   
the face there was extremely fat, and wore glasses which seemed to be stretched to the limit to fit on the fat head.   
"hello jasper."   
"your late for work"   
tom looked at his watch.   
"2 minutes only"   
"i should dock your pay, everyone else turned up on time."   
"other people didn't have a trainee. and i nearly got topped by a vampire this morning besides this isn't a social call is it?"   
"No, your expertise is needed. a situation is developing in little whinging."   
"what is it?"   
" a dragon , welsh green has stumbled in on it."   
"strange, how did it get there?"   
"how am i supposed to know. just get there, and take the trainee"   
"understood"   
he turned to johnette.   
"can you apparate?"   
"no, i failed my test, i ended up in barbados"   
"ah, so we have to get there by floo powder. you know how to use floo powder"   
"yes"   
"good, since this dragon is in little whinging, we'll be dropping in on mrs figg.oh, and remember, don't trip over her cats, she gets a little leery about that "   
he picked up a bit of floo powder from a nearby plant pot and stepped into the chimney, and shouted "mrs figg"   
there was a rush of air, and he ended up in a front room, with many pictures of cats. there was another noise as johnette went arrived at the fireplace.   
"oh hello there. your here about the dragon"   
"yes ma'am, where is it?"   
"outside the post office"   
they got out of the house, careful not to trip over any cats and got out into the street. there were several upturned cars, with ministry wizards already milling all over the place, repairing the damage. there was a loud roar, and tom started running. johnette tried to keep up with him. they spotted the dragon, it was on the ground, and being kept there by ministry wizards buzzing over it on broomsticks, sending sparks at it, but it wasn't having any effect.   
SONORUM bellowed tom. suddenly his voice was magnified. "oK, everyone, stunning spells on three!"   
there was a scream, a muggle child had seen the dragon.   
"one"   
the dragon turned to look at the muggle, and roared.   
"two"   
the dragon lunged at the child, and was about to flame him when   
"3"   
the dragon collapsed immediatly as the stunning spells hit it. the muggle was still in hysterics. tom shook his head and walked up to him.   
"what's your name kid?"   
"pe..pe..piers. the..that we..wuz a"   
"OBLIVIATE"   
suddenly the boy's face went blank.   
meanwhile the wizards dragged the dormant dragon away.   
"very strange. dragons don't usually come to muggle areas of their own accord."   
  
"are you saying" said johnette "that someone let that dragon loose. in muggle area"   
"it's time for lunch, i know a good place. you hungry, knocking out dragons is thirsty work"   
they started walking.   
"what do you suspect?"   
"tell you what, i'll let you work it out. it'll be good for you to learn how to solve these crimes"   
"ok"   
they walked into an open air bar. tom got a simple tuna paste sandwich, while johnette got a cheese sandwich.   
"i don't how you can eat just cheese in a sandwich, i find it foul" he commented "anyway what do you suspect?"   
"well"started johnette" perhaps the dragon got there of it's own accord, accidently"   
"dragons aren't smart enough to get through the defenses against them it would take a wizard to break through it."   
"so a wizard let the dragon through, but why?"   
"that is the easy bit to see. think about what happens today"   
"well, since it's the day after the triwizard tournament, the teachers are off duty, so perhaps it was an attempt to kill one of the staff?"   
"close"   
"hold on, this is little whinging right"   
"yep"   
"and all the hogwarts students are coming back, and doesn't.."   
"yes, he does.it looks like someone prepared a little surprise for him on his return. but the dragon wouldn't be able to hurt him anyway."   
"who.. are you saying that you-know-who is behind this? that you-know-who is back"   
"i didn't say a thing. you only assumed that through looking at the evidence. any auror worth his salt would see that. i don't think many of them are too happy with fudge for pretending it isn't happening."   
"who would do this, i thoughtmost of his supporters were in azkaban."   
"i wish, there are a few who got away with it by saying they had imperius curses on them. but i doubt they'd be telling the truth. and with a few people not enough evidence was ever brought against them. worst of all a lot of them work in the ministry of magic."   
"so who do you suspect?"   
"think of how someone could have gotten in touch with a dragon"   
"well, with that dragon, i suppose it goes under disposal of dangerous creatures"   
"yes, and can you tell me about any suspected dea-"   
"malfoy, he could have easily forced the committee to hand over a dragon"   
"malfoy is too smart to get involved in something so obvious. he's a slippery character."   
"well who else is there"   
"macnair deals with dangerous creatures all the time, i daresay he'd know how to handle a dragon"   
"macnair? he only executes the animals"   
"but he's friends with malfoy, and that name holds a lot of leverage in the ministry. and so the first port of call will be to the commitee in london."   
they finished their meal and walked back to mrs figg's house, who let them use floo powder to get to the commitee for disposal of dangerous creatures.   
as tom climbed out of the chimney, he stepped into the commitee. the room was very large, and there were several windows open, and several large double doors. outside a few of them were several magical creatures tied down, and a ministry worker having to stop some of them from attacking other people.the walls were covered in burn marks, and there was one giant dent in the wall where something larger than a normal person had slammed it. there was another whooshing noise as johnette arrived.   
she stepped out of it and looked around.   
"where would macnair be?" tom asked one of the wizards carrying paperwork.   
"he's probably at his desk"replied the wizard, and pointed at a large man sitting at a desk.  
he turned around and walked to macnair. the burly man lookedup, and immediatly looked down, and stopped moving. he then moved his wand hand under the desk.   
tom could see it in the man's eyes, he was definately guilty of something. no no body acts like that who is innocent.   
"put the wand down. i just want to ask you a few questions " tom ordered.   
macnair had murder in his eyes. behind tom, johnette pulled out her wand.   
macnair slowly put both of his hands upon the table.   
"where were you this morning?"  
macnairs eyes darted off somewhere, and then back to tom.   
"i was here, i have witnesses." he growled   
"tell me, do you know of any dragon's going missing lately?"asked tom "in your department?"   
"one may have disappeared this morning, a welsh green. probably some dragon rights activist. it was scheduled to be executed tomorrow, i got several dragon slayers down from norfolk especially for it." replied macnair carefully "they can tell you i was down here when it escaped."   
tom held the mans gaze for a while. he was definately hiding something, but it wasn't to do with the dragon.   
"how did it escape? this can't possibly sit well with the ministry, you letting dragons run free "   
macnairs eyes darted away again and back to tom.   
"i didn't set any dragons loose" replied macnair.   
"i meant that a dragon might have escaped through the sloppiness of your department. now answer my question, how did a dragon come loose from your department?"   
" as i said someone must have set it loose.your barking up the wrong tree"   
"who's tree should i be barking up?"   
"try the person in charge of dragons, he'd know more about it. he's the man wearing the dragon skin robes, with all the burn marks"   
tom paused. macnair was giving all the right answers. nobody gave all the right answers. and macnair was still quite nervous.   
tom walked over to johnette.   
"you were watching him all along, right?" inquired tom   
"yes."   
"where did he look when i asked him where he was?"   
"at some clerk i believe"   
"what description"   
"i can't remember. is this what aurors do most of the time"   
"yes, it's detective work. it's not all about nearly getting yourself killed, its mostly asking around. and paperwork"   
"oh, i thought that it would be more exciting"   
"exciting? i just stopped a dragon incinerating someone. believe me, you don't want this job to get interesting, if you want your face to stay the same shape."   
"no, i meant with more killing dark wizards and things like that."   
"firstly, don't kill dark wizards unless you really have to. they're worth much more alive than dead.they can usually give information on the identities of other dark wizards. secondly, pray you never have to go up against a dark wizard. dragons are bad enough, but a wizard gone bad is ten times as worse. where is the person in charge of dragons by the way"   
johnette pointed to another desk with a very disgruntled looking man, with the remains of a singed beard clinging to his face, and he was having a heated argument with another man. tom walked to the desk, and waited for the shouting to die down. the other man stormed off, stamping his feet.   
"hello there." greeted tom.   
"yes one of our dragons went missing, and almost killed someone. it's not my fault, bloody stable boys should be more careful, especially about intruders. it's not my fault, but the ministy's on my back blaming me. i tell you, heads will roll."   
" what happenned?"   
"ask the stable boys" replied the man "they were the ones who saw the intruder"   
"where are the stable boys?" asked tom.   
"in the stables"replied the man"where else?"   
"where are the stables? "   
"through the corridor, 8 & a 1/2 door on the right."   
tom nodded , and walked down the corridor, followed by johnette.   
"8 1/2 door, you must be joking" commented johnette.   
they walked down the corridor counting the doors, until they got to the eighth door. tom walked a bit further.   
"theres no 8 1/2 door here." said johnette.  
tom kicked the wall with his foot. the bottom half swung around, like a real small door, and the smell of charred stone mixed with the unmistakeable stench of nervous animals. tom ducked down, and climbed through the hole, and into the stables.   
the stables were like most stables, only a lot larger. there was the sound of several roars. one giant grey creature tried to charge at tom, but hit the walls of the stables with a crash. the ground shook, knocking johnette off her feet.   
"better be careful, that erumpent's a bit violent" said a voice" good thing theres the magical wall, or you'd be a nasty red stain."   
the voice belonged to a man in his 40's, walking towards them.   
"the horn injects a nasty exploding fluid, yeh'd do well not to bother it. it's killed 3 wizards already, and i'm going to have to put it down tomorrow.some idiot thought it would make a good pet."   
"aah, i see" replied tom.   
the stable boy pulled johnette off of the ground, and asked "do i know you from somewhere?"   
"no, i don't think i've ever met you before."replied johnette, blushing slightly " what do you do around here?"   
"we hold the more dangerous animals here until they can be killed. i'm the stable master around here. oh, and i'd advise you to stay away from the quintaped, it can reach over the top of the pen and hit you with it's foot, several of our lads got injured going past it. those boffs at the minister want to do something to it for some reason"   
tom warily moved away from the pen, just as a hairy leg lanced out to club him.   
"your here about the dragon?" asked the stable master.   
"yes, can you show me the pen it escaped from?"   
"yes, it's just down there" pointed the man.   
tom walked over to an empty stable. he opened the door, and something roared and suddenly, tom was flying through the air.   
as he hit the ground, he heard johnette shout something, but he couldn't hear it above the roaring. the other creatures became restless in their pens. tom got off the ground only to be knocked down again.   
"stay on the ground " shouted johnette "its a demiguise, i've read about these."   
"a what?"asked tom   
"it's invisible, very dangerous, sort of like an ape"   
the demiguise roared again. tom looked around, trying to see where the sound came from. he brought his wand out, and got up.   
"did the book tell you how to stop one of these creatures?" cried tom as he was knocked down again.   
"sir, get up i have an idea"   
"i'll only get knocked down again"   
"do it!"   
tom got up, and johnette shouted   
ALIQUID LUTUM!  
mud shot out of the wand, and covered tom, and also revealed a muddy fist floating in mid air, on a collision course with tom's face. this time, tom saw the hand and dodged it, and as more mud sprayed onto the creature, he saw his target better.   
he grabbed his wand , and dropped to the ground as it's fists once again flailed at him. it roared, and charged him. he flew through the air once more, and as he was covered in mud, his wand flew out of his hand.   
"stun it!" he shouted as it charged him again.   
"stupefy!" shouted johnette. the creature immediatly went limp and fell over.  
tom got up, and wiped some mud off of his face.   
"good work there. using the mud spray curse." he said, trying to wipe more mud off of his cloak but wasn't having much effect.   
"come on," he shouted at johnette "help me with this demiguise. you wouldn't want it roaming loose."   
He grabbed one arm of the stunned creature, and johnette grabbed the other arm, and they heaved it back into it's pen. as they were leaving, tom closed the pen door, and made sure it was secure.   
"sir, "began johnette   
"call me tom," replied tom   
"sorry about covering you in mud"   
"i've been covered in worse"   
"like?"   
"snakes."   
"oh"   
"i tripped and fell into a snake pit on my first day of being an apprentice."   
they kept walking, avoiding the flailing hands of the quintaped, and crawled through the door.   
"where do you think he's gone?"   
"i've got no idea, but he did it. that wasn't an innocent mistake. but he'll be long gone by now." uttered tom " if he has any sense."   
" or if he thinks he's killed us."   
they went into the main hall, and saw a few wizards milling around in disgust, and the hall was in a general mess.   
and tom noticed in the middle of it all, macnair was smirking, as if someone had crowned him king of the universe.   
tom turned to the man wearing the dragon skin jacket, who looked, if possible even more disgruntled.   
"don't tell me, the stable master ran through here?"   
"what happened to you?" grunted the man.   
"no time to explain, where did he go?"   
the man pointed to a broken window, which one wizard was trying to repair.   
through the window was diagon alley  
without a second glance, tom leapt through the window, followed by johnette. in the street, he saw the stable master walking calmly through the road, as running would attract undue attention from other wizards. tom brought his wand out, and started to run after the stable master. he held his wand in front of him and prepared to stun the man, but he couldn't. there were too many people in the way. he started to run faster. the stable master looked over his shoulder, and his mouth dropped.   
"stop him" shouted tom as the stable man broke into sprint.   
of course, none of the other wizards responded, and tom had to force his way through the crowd. suddenly, he spotted a child showing off his new broom stick, a nimbus 2000.   
tom stopped, and looked at the child.   
"i'm an auror," he said as he snatched the broom "if i don't give it back in one piece, i'll buy you another one"   
he swung his leg over the side and kicked off into the air.   
the stable man turned and looked over his shoulder again. he gasped, and ran into a shop, quality quidditch supplies. tom adjusted his grip on the broom and swooped into the shop, causing much indignation from the proprietors.   
"you're cornered !"shouted tom. "give yourself up"   
as he shouted this, he was subconsciously praying that th stable master would give himself up. things got really nasty when people screamed things like "you'd never take me alive!".   
one of the employees opened his mouth to say something, but he was immediatly cut off by the shout of "you'll never take me alive!" from behind one of the shelves of broom polish.   
suddenly, the shelf of broom polish creaked , and fell forward, smashing it to pieces, and covering the floor with polish, and out from behind it came the stable master on a broomstick, gripping his wand with savage intent.   
he pointed it ar tom, and shouted "AVADA KEDAVRA". tom dodged out of the way of the green flash, and it hit a wall. all of the people in the shop made a mad scramble into the street. as the got out into the street, all they heard were the screaming of curses, and several flashes.   
johnette reached the door, breathless, followed by the child who's broom had been commandeered. johnette rushed in to the shop, and shouted "EXPELLIARMUS" at the stable master, knocking him off of his broomstick. as the man hit the ground, tom sent a stunning spell at the man. tom dived his bromstick so low that his feet touched the ground, lightly skidding on the broom-polish covered floor.   
the people started to look in when the racket stopped. the little child ran in, and shouted   
"gimme back mi broom " tom picked up the broom. it, like tom, was now caked with mud.   
"ye got it all darety noo."   
tom quickly pressed a muddy galleon into the boys hand, and walked over to the stable master. the boy ran off, bumping into a large figure, wich shouted "AGARD!"   
tom turned around, and saw strumpet standing in the doorway, heaving his chest up to full size, which blocked off the doorway.   
"what do you think your doing?"   
tom grabbed the stable master by the scruff of his neck.   
"this is the man who set the dragon free, and set a demiguise on me, not to mention attempted to use an unforgivable curse on me." replied tom.   
"well, you could have exercised more caution, not to involve civilians and create this mess. this is dragging the ministries name through the mud, not to mention the state of your cloth-"   
at this point, tom lost his temper. how could this bloated lazy person, who's never wrestled anything bigger than a filofax , and possibly his lunch, critiscise tom.   
"shut fat boy," yelled tom " i have nearly been murdered 3 times today, and i'm not in the mood to listen to you moaning about me treading on a few feet while making the world a better place!"   
"you should be less cavalier in this job, this is important work, and you prance around all over the place-"   
"what would you know about being an auror, you sit on your desk all day getting crewam pies and stuffing your face. the only reason you have a job is your daddy bought it for you!!"  
at this point, a crowd was gathering around to watch the spectacle.   
"don't you ever critiscise my father!"   
shouted strumpet, and seemed to be swelling with anger.   
"just because your daddy was a good auror, with a pack of money" shouted tom   
"he was a far better auror than you'll ever be!" retorted strumpet   
"whereas you" replied tom " are a poor excuse for a wizard, and couldn't defend yourself against a deaf doormouse"   
"i'm twice the man you are" shouted strumpet   
"your four times the man i am if we weighed you! i mean, wat did you eat? your family"   
"oh, if we're having personal insults, you look like you've taken a bath in sewage, but that could only make you smell better"   
"at least when i sit down i don't need two seats"   
by now, the crowd had increased so much that some enterprising vendor was selling beverages to people, and several reporters from the daily prophet had gravitated to the spot.   
strumpet pulled his wand, and tom brought out his. the whole street suddenly fell silent.   
"don't be a fool jasper," cried tom " i could have you on the ground before you've even started to wave your stick"   
"i could have your job!" threatened jasper.   
"on what grounds, i just caught a dark wizard, and saved lives. what did you do?"   
jasper was silent, and he put his wand away. the reporters from the daily prophet were scribbling on their pads excitedly.   
"now, mister strumpet, could you let me get on with my job?"   
tom pushed past him, leaving a dark brown stain on strumpets impeccably clean shirt, dragging the dark wizard with him. johnette followed him. a reporter pushed through the crowd up to him and, sensing an incriminating story on the ministry, asked   
"do you have any comments on mr strumpet?"   
"well, you've seen what i have to say about him" replied tom   
"and the identity of this person?" inquired the reporter.   
he worked as a stable master in the department for the regulation and control of magical creatures, someone down there will tell you"   
"what did he do?"   
"oh, go away, it's obvious isn't it?"   
he walked off trailed by johnette, who was subsequently asked   
"can i ask a few questions about that auror"   
and met with the swift reply "no".   
tom dragged the man into another building, marked "department for magical law enforcement".   
as he dragged the man in, he was met with lots of clapping.   
flinch went up to him.   
"well done!"he said" everybody heard about how you shouted at strumpet, it's about time someone gave that young man a good talking to. oh, and well done with the dark wizard"   
"thanks"replied tom, "where are the cells by the way, i can't remember where ..."   
"they're down the stairs, through that door."   
he pointed, and tom dragged the man down the stairs roughly, followed by johnette.   
the cells were cold wet, and dark. the bars were rusty, but still strong. as tom dragged the stable master down it, there were several murmurs from the other prisoners, and one wolfwhistled as johnette walked past. tom opened the door of one cell and threw the stable master into it. he shouted "ENERVATE" and the man woke up. he ran at the bars, but they didn't budge an inch.   
he looked to johnette an asked   
"d'you have a quick quotes pad with you, i think mines covered in mud."   
"i didn't think you needed a quick quotes pad"   
"you do for interrogation. tell you what, you quickly go upstairs and ask kreg at the desk for one."   
johnette hurried upstairs, and went to the desk. she briefly saw macnair walk away from kreg. she went up to the goblin and asked "what was he doing here?"   
"macnair? he was here about the death eater. tom apprehended"   
"death eater? he never said he was a death eater. "   
"they don't generally, that's how malfoy got off."   
"i mean, how did macnair know?"   
"ask him, he's on his way to the ministry."   
"and do you have a quick quotes pad"   
the goblin reached under the desk, and pulled out a pad with a black quill.   
"you know how to work this? "   
"yes" replied johnette, walking back to the cells.   
when she got there, tom was standing, staring at the man. he had summoned a table. johnette put the quick quotes pad on top of it, and balanced the black quill on it.   
"testing, this is johnette stubbs"   
the pen quickly wrote down exactly that.   
"alright" said tom "now we can begin. now as you know, you used several unforgivable curses with intent to kill. you'll be looking at a long time in azkaban. now tell me, what did you do this morning."   
at this the man burst into manic laughter.   
the laughter was chilling, it echoed down the cells, and all the other prisoners started to giggle as well.   
"you don't get it do you?" laughed the man "muggle-lovers like you have had their day, and you know it."   
"you're wrong, bigots like you have had their day, your master disappeared ten years ago."   
"no, he is still with us, all we have to do is carry on his noble work, we will be victorious. if you put us in azkaban, we will only bide our time, until someone frees us. there are more supporters of voldemort in the ministry than you could know."   
"who are they?"   
the prisoner spat at his feet as an answer. tom sighed and turned to johnette and said   
"i'm going to have to leave you for a while, to get veritaserum. only senior aurors are allowed to get it, so i'm going to leave you alone with him. you'll be alright?"   
johnette nodded. tom walked off, and as he walked off the man came closer to the bars.   
"i know you" he whispered  
johnette stayed silent.   
"i remember the last time i saw you, you were screaming like a baby. clutching that corpse like it was important"   
johnette paused, not quite believing what she heard.   
"yes, and you screamed a lot." he whispered " daddy's little girl, weren't you? only, he screamed a lot more than you did. he was in tears if i remember.of course, why should i, he deserved it"   
johnette couldn't help herself   
"for what, being at the wrong place at the wrong time?" she shouted   
"for being a muggle! like you! you don't deserve to be a wizard. the blood that runs through your veins is dirty. you shouldn't be a wizard, and you know that."   
"shut up"   
"i remember how he screamed when i put the cruciatus curse on him. he should have been thanking me. he deserved the pain."   
"so you killed him?"   
"no, i was having too much fun. it was mac- wait, you think you're being clever getting answers out of me. but i know, you're still the screaming little mudblood you were all those years ago. but it was funny when you screamed . we were all laughing."   
she remembered. she remebered hearing the laughter last year when the dementors came. they had jeered at her, when she clenched the corpse of her father. and now, a deep anger at those people came unwound at this instant. this man had tortured her father before her very eyes, and now was bragging about it. she knew that this man had to pay, and shouted "CRUCIO"   
the man immediatly started to twitch in pain, but he didn't scream. that was the worst part. he laughed.   
suddenly the wand was knocked out of her hand. tom icked it up. he looked like he was quite angry. he glanced at the quick quotes pad, and looked at what was written down.   
"he tortured your father?"   
she nodded.   
"alright, i have to talk to you a second." he walked up the stairs, and she followed.   
the moment they got up the stairs, and the first thing he said was   
"where did you learn that from? i don't remember them teaching that at hogwarts."   
"i learnt it from a book. i thought you needed to-"   
"no you don't, that is not what this job is about!" he shouted   
"i thought this job was to fight evil"   
"our job is to keep the peace! do you understand that? because you obviously don't. keeping the peace is not breaking the rules. tell me how are we supposed to keep the peace if we break the rules! can you tell me? you never use an unforgivable curse on a prisoner. "   
"there's no rules against it"   
"that is because nobody has ever done that. do you know why? "   
there was silence.   
"because the first rule of being an auror is never cross the line. never act like a dark wizard. because, in the end you might end up becoming one."   
"you know what he said"   
"he was baiting you, that's what prisoners do. he see's he's getting to you, then he'll do it more. he's hoping that you'll kill him, because that's much better than what'll happen if he goes to azkaban"   
there was silence.suddenly, they both felt cold.   
"he almost confessed to macnair being involved"   
" i suspect macnair was the one who told him to let loose the dragon. you saw how guilty he looked. we'd better get back, and get as much information as we can out of him. are you alright?"   
johnette was leaning against a wall, slightly breathless. then tom turned.   
it was a dementor.  
it went down into the dungeons, followed by macnair. tom turned to chase after them but was stopped by kreg.   
"there's nothing you can do. fudge is allowing this."   
"he's allowing those soul-sucking fiends to kill the only witness i have. there are more death eaters in the ministry"   
"it's too late" replied kreg   
"it is now that you've stopped me"   
kreg merely smiled nastily and walked back to his desk. the dementor was the first to exit the dungeon, and the wizards visibly moved out of it's way. macnair was the second to come out, grinning. he went up to tom, and pressed the quick quotes pad into his hand. the pages had been torn out.   
"you ba-"   
"aah, we don't want to go using language like that. you should be happy, justice has been done." sneered macnair.   
"you've destroyed evidence"   
"confiscated, we need to file it in the ministry. a full confession."   
"except some bits will get lost."   
"ah, well i can't help it if a page gets lost. its not as if you can do anything about it. it's a shame i know. well, i've got to be going, got official ministry business to do."   
macnair began to walk off, but johnette held out her foot, and tripped him up. macnair fell flat on his face. as he got up, he looked at johnette.   
"sorry" she said, although it was clear from the way of her saying it, she was not. "you should look where you're going"   
"yes" added tom "watch yourself"   
macnair walked off.   
"how can that be allowed?" demanded johnette. "how come he gets away with it."   
"there's no evidence" replied tom   
"but we know he did it."   
"if we arrested everyone who struck us as suspicious without evidence, there'd be a lot of innocent people in azkaban"   
"but we know he's a death eater. we had evidence"   
"which he so conveniently destoyed. there is nothing we can do now. all we can do is watch him."   
"when i joined the aurors , i thought that we were supposed to make the world a better place, to uphold justice. but now i've realised something."   
tom turned to her and asked "what?"   
"there is no such thing as justice"   
to her surprise, he nodded his head in agreement   
"no, there isn't, there's just us. " 


End file.
